Apparatus for cleaning textile fibers



' Filed May 11. 1944 March 1, 1949., M. T. HOFFMAN 2,463,272

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING TEXTILE FIBERS 3 Sheets-Sheet l 1 (37 I W) a663,.

March 1, 1949. M. T. HOFFMAN 2,463,272

APPARATUS CLEANING TEXTILE FIBERS Filed May 11. 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 l m3 m4 jive/71h 7 MA/FRED 7. Han-MAN March 1, 1949. M. T. HOFFMAN 7 2,463,272

APPARATUS FOR CLEANING TEXTILE FIBERS Filed May 11, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Mar. 1, 1949.

orrlcs 2,483,27? APPARATUS FOR CLEANING 'rnxma mans Manfred 'r. Hoffman, Newburyport, Mass. Application May 11, 1944, Serial No. 535,086

4 Claims.

The general object of the invention is to provide an improved process and apparatus for the removal of foreign matter and impurities from textile fibers in general, and. in particular to remove such matter and impurities from wool and other textile fibers of animal origin, mechanically to a degree of completeness such as will eliminate or reduce the need for the acid carbonizing of wool fibers in order to remove the burrs seeds, straw, shives, and other foreign impurities picked up by the wool during its growth, and also the need for the depitching process employed to remove paint and tar commonly present on the fibers. The treatment of the wool fibers with acid, either as loose stock or as cloth, followed by heating the wool to char the impurities,

and the usually necessary subsequent neutralizing of this acid with alkali, tend to reduce the felting power of the wool fibers and to injure its other desired qualities, and hence a commercially practicable method of attaining equivalent results in the way of removing foreign impurities without resort to such chemical treatments has long been desired, but never previously attained, as far as I am aware. The depitching process is commonly a separate step, involving a further operation employing solvents and additional machinery, adding to the expense of preparing the wool.

No commercially successful method of attainin the complete removal of these foreign impurities without resort to the use of acid and other chemical solutions has hitherto as yet been devised, so far as known to me. To be sure, a largepart of the foreign matter is removed from the loose stock in the dusting or opening machines, in the securing and rinsing, or equivalent Washing and depitching process, in the burr-picker, and in the carding machines, and in the incidental clusters and ceiling condensers widely employed at intermediate steps in the progress of the loose stock through these various machines. But in spite of all such treatment, bits of foreign matter still remain clinging to the fibers requir- I ing for most purposes the previous acid carbonizing and subsequent crushing and dusting for their v method has been practiced by subjecting the wool to heavy pressure between smooth-surfaced rolls when the wool is spread out in a very thin sheet on the order of from one fiber to a halfdozen' fibers thick, and for this purpose the wool has been fed to the crushing rolls in the form of the full width web which is stripped from the dofier of a card by the doffer comb. An example of crushing rolls adapted for this purpose is shown in the U. S. Patent No. 2,075,156, granted on March,30, 1937, to Antonio Peralta Albero,

which device is known as the Peralta machine, and is located between the first and second cards, or between the second and third cards, of a set of woolen cards, the two cooperating rolls receiving the fiat web from the dofier of one card and feeding it, usually by intermediate feeding devices, to the next succeeding card in the set.

Thus employed, the set of cards with the aid of the Peralta machine regularly eliminates from to and in special cases as high as of the foreign matter present in the stock as it arrives at the set of cards. Naturally, efiorts have been made to improve the cleaning. effected in this way, on the principle that if one crushing eliminates so much of the foreign matter, a second crushing-might eliminate all the rest. However, it has been repeatedly found that the use of a second Peralta machine following the first Peralta machine in the same set of cards to perform a second crushing action on the carded web only increases the cleaning about 3% or 4%, which because of the high cost of these Peralta machines is an economically inadequate degreeof improvement prohibiting the use of the second of these machinesneeded to make the process continuous as required in a commercial setup.

equivalent machine, practically the entire remaining part of the foreign matter is pulverized, apparently because of the change in the lie or position of its presentation to the crushing surfaces, so that through subsequent carding or dusting or other cleaning processes substantially removal of all foreign matter is accomplished, with the result that the wool is rendered clean enough forall ordinary purposes to eliminate the need for acid carbonizing of either the stock or the fabric made therefrom.

In accordance with my discovery,.and in the effort to simplify and reduce the cost of practicing the process and to adapt the process based the process and of the novel machines are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 ma diagrammatic side elevation of an arrangement showing the use of existing machines for practicing the invention process.

Fig. 2 is'a diagrammatic side elevation of a more elaborate arrangement of existing machines adapted to practice the process of the infan blades, or other heaters, and

matter previously pulverized by the crushing action of the Peralta machine largely removed by air-currents and centrifugal force through the screens and grids of tlmduster or similar machine. In certain instances, a hopper feeder having a dofjfer rotating at fairly high speed and knocking back the stock from the spikes of the lifter apron may be used.

The stock discharged from the duster I is then fed as by delivery apron ll under a hood l2 to the feed rolls of a second card l3, where it is is again carded and the web H stripped from the the foreign doifer I is fedby apron l6 between the two' rolls I1, I 8, of a second Peralta or similar machine ls, ,finfical with the first. In this second crushin effected by the second Peralta or similar '-machine, .'the remaining bits of foreign matter vention, for use on wool that is more difficult to clean.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic side elevation of. one

card of a set of carding machines, combined with an improved crushing machineof my invention having provision for agitating the fiberso! the stock between successive crushings.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the improved crushing machine of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of certain parts of the machine of Fig. 7.

Fg. 6 is a vertical section of the parts shown in Fig. 5, taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. '7 is a diagrammatic side elevation of one card of a set of carding machines, combined with an improved crushing machine of :my invention and also with a series ofmultiple crush rolls.

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the improved'crushing machine and crush rolls of Fig. '7.

.Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic side elevation illustrating an arrangement whereby the output of a plurality of cards is crushed in a single crushing machine of my invention.

Fig. 10 is a schematic plan view of an alternative arrangement for practising the invention.

The practice of the invention process in a simple form with prior existing machines is illustrated in Fig. 1, in which a card I of a set of cards forming a carding unit, preferably the first card thereof, feeds its web 2 in flat and full-width relation from the doffer 3 of such card by the medium of apron I, into the bite between a pair of crushing surfaces comprising the top roll 4 and bottom roll 5 of a Peralta machine 6 according to Patent No. 2,075,156, where the thin web of fibers is subjected to the extremely heavy pressure of the large solid top-roll, assisted when necessary by the pressure of the usual springs (not shown) engaging the journals of the top roll and provided to augment the pressure of the top roll when desired. The smooth surfaces of rolls 4 and 5, precision-ground to true cylinder vform, crush the major portion of the dirt and foreign vegetable matter into dust, while paint and tar present in the stock adhere to the surfaces of the rolls and are removed therefrom along with such other dirt as may adhere, by

scraper blades 8. The crushed web is then transported by apron 9, to a duster. willow, mixing picker or analogus machine III of conventional or any preferred design, where the web is completely torn apart by toothed lags, high-speed in its passage through the finisher card or other cards of the set, in the case of wool-of average foreign matter content, or for use for most purposes. The crushed web is transported to the next card. or to a duster similar to that indicated at IU intervening before the next card, by a screen apron 20. In cleaning certain kinds of stock, ceiling condensers may be substituted for the duster, their dusting action being adequate.

Where more complete cleaning is required, or where the nature of the foreign matter makes it more dimcult to remove, an alternative setup using prior-existing machines is employed as shown in' Fig. 2, where the stock is put through the first or other card 2 lof a set, thence through a Peralta or similar machine 22, thence either as a web or as loose stock through an extended through a duster 24, through another series of crush rolls 25, a second duster 26, and thence into a card 21, the web issuing from which is put through a second Peralta machine 28, after which it may be conducted'to a finisher card, and/or packed up for sale as cleaned wool. By dint of the added working of the stock by the fluted rolls of the intervening crush rolls 23, 25, and the dusting between and following the operations of these crush rolls, a greater degree of cleaning is effected before reaching the second Peralta machine. quent carbonizing of the wool is entirely eliminated in all but the most exceptional cases. In this, as well as in-the arrangement of Fig. 1, the second card shown is employed mainly to perform the function of rearranging the stock in a thin sheet so that the included foreign-matter is exposed to the full crushing action of the second Peralta machine.

This sequence of machines is adapted to be used in a special precleaning unit such as shown in plan in Fig. 10, whereby all or a large part of the stock to be used by a mill-is cleaned according to the invention principles at a high rate of production at one locality in the mill, thus lightening the burden of cleaning devolving on the finisher cards and hence enabling the output of each unit thereof to be increased. In this pre- With this setup the need for subsecleaning unit, each of a plurality of carding ma-' dust and deposits the stock on the apron 99 of one or more series of crush rolls I similar to that. shown at 23 and 25 in Fig. 2 and at I4 in Fig. 7. The stock emerging from the crush rolls I00 is then fed into one or more dusters or equivalent machines II where the pulverized foreign matter is removed, and the stock emerging from the duster is conducted to a bin I02, whence it is distributed by gravity chutes or otherwise to the feed aprons of a plurality of carding machines I03 whence the doifer webs are crushed in individual Peralta or equivalent machines I04 and the crushed stock is collected by a common ceiling condenser or other cleaning device I05 and delivered to the bagging pit for bagging, or to any other point desired, for further processing.

As the use of a plurality of Peralta machines in accordance with the invention increases the cost of the machines needed to practice my improved process, and also because their extreme weight limits their location in the mill or requires special support of the floors, I have devised improved mechanism for performing the same crushing function as the Peralta machine, which new mechanism performs in, one unit a plural or repeated crushing action; and I have replaced the dead weight of the solid rolls by mounted in bearings 42 which have capacity for slight vertical movement in suitable ways 44 in the frame of the machine, each bearing being connected with a piston 45 working in a cylinder 46 to which compressed air, water, oil, or other fluid is fed under pressure via pipe 41 to force piston 45 powerfully downward and thus to develop the requisite pressure between top hollow rolls, providing hydraulic, pneumatic, or

other powerful means for pressing the rolls together to attain the requisite intense pressure at the nip of the rolls to crush the foreign matter. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, the new crushing machine 29 which operates on the web delivered to it by apron 30 from doffer 3| of the first or other card 32 of a set, comprises a single roll 33, Figs. 3 and 4, equipped with a scraper 34 and wiper roll 35, which rests upon two other rolls 35, 31, arranged in horizontally spaced relation in suitably fixed bearings. Thus the web is first crushed between large roll 33 and small roll 36, and then again crushed between roll 33 and small roll 37, and preferably is agitated at intermediate points between these two crushing operations by a blast of compressed air issuing from a series of nozzles 38 extending across the Width of the web and directed obliquely against the under side of roll 33, aided, when deemed desirable, by mechanical agitation by means in the form of a brush, herein a wire-clothed roll 39 having long, resilient wire teeth, like a fancy roll on a card, the tips of the wires having the same direction and having a different speed than the traveling web, herein traveling at slightly increased speed, so that the blast of air, or the' combined pneumatic and mechanical action of ments 38, 39, to effect the agitation of the stock at this point. Thus the bits of foreign matter left incompletely crushed on passing roll 36 are reduced to dust in the second crushing between roll 31 and large roll 33. On issuing from the nip of rolls 33 and 31, the web is sucked into the intake flue 40 of a duster 4|, corresponding to the duster I0 of Fig. 1, from which the stock is fed onward to the succeeding cards in a set of cards as for example in Fig. 1, emerging from the finisher card thereof in substantially completely cleaned condition. As shown in Fig. 4 top roll 33 is hollow, and has its journals roll 33 and lower rolls 36, 31. The three rolls are driven by any suitable or preferred knownmeans, andmay be driven in analogous manner to that shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

An alternative form of the plural-crushing machine illustrated at 29 in Fig. 3 is shown in Figs. 5 and 6 in which the agitation or shifting of the fibers in the course of the crushing operation is attained in different manner. In this embodiment, the large top roll 48 works against two horizontally spaced smaller bottom rolls 49, 50, which rotate at slightly different, herein slower, peripheral speed than does the surface of top roll 48, thereby creating a slight rubbing or grinding action between the rolls which more effectively breaks up and pulverizes the foreign matter therein. This unequal speed drive is effected by gear 5i on a drive shaft 52 connected with a suitable source of power (not shown) and engaging with gear 53 fixed on the end of shaft 54 of roll 50, which gear 53 also engages with a wide-faced large gear 55 fixed on shaft 56 of top roll 48. A gear 51 fixed on shaft 58 of roll 49,- and either identical with or slightly larger or smaller than gear 53, also engages with top roll gear 55 to drive roll 49, like roll 50, at a different surface speed from top roll 48.

To increase further the rubbing action onthe stock and its foreign matter, if desired, top roll 48 is reciprocated axially with respect to the bottom rolls, by an eccentric 59 fixed on a shaft 60 which is rotated by bevel gears 5|, 62, driven by the extended end of shaft 58 of bottom roll 49. This eccentric is surrounded by a strap 63 attached by pivot pin I54 to a collar 65 surrounding the end of shaft 56 on top roll 48, and rotatably connected with the end of shaft 56 by means 'of a screw 66 having its end'lccated in a groove in the end of such shaft. Thus, as the rolls rotate, top roll 48 is reciprocated axially with respect to bottom rolls 49, 50.

To increase the grinding action thus attained on the foreign matter when necessary in certain instances, the surfaces of one or more, or all, of the three rolls are slightly roughened, as by sand blasting or cutting very fine flutes or grooves therein, or by knurling the surfaces. In these ways, a more complete pulverizing of certain forms of foreign materials and an accompanying freeing and pushing out of the clinging particles, canbe attained with a reduced pressure of the rolls against each other thus preventing harm to certain classes of wool fibers. In other instances, the agitating air blasts produced by nozzles 38 of Fig. 4, and the mechanical disturbances of the relation of the fibers by stirrer roll 39 of such figure, working between the two rolls.

Heating the crushing rolls has been found advantageous in removing foreign matter. particularly in causing some types of the paint and tar present as impurities in the wool to adhere to the surfaces of the rolls and thus to be extracted from the fibers. For this purpose, any suitable or preferred means of heating the rolls is employed, in the present instance comprising infra-red electric light bulbs 10 in reflecting troughs 'H extending across the full width of the rolls and directing radiant heat against the surfaces thereof to keep the rolls moderately hot.

This machine of Figs. 5 and -6 is ordinarily made of a width to take the full-width web from the doifer of the first or other card of a set .of carding machines. An example of an advantageous arrangement for using this machine is shown in Fig. 7, in which the web from the dofier 12 of a card 13 is crushed between the rolls 48, 49, and 50 of the machine of Figs. 5 and 6, and then fed through a set of conventional crush rolls 14, after which it is put through one or more dusters (not shown) after the manner of Fig. 2 and then carded in the remaining cards of the set without need for further crushing or for subsequent acid carbonizing. The invention principle of agitating the fibers between or during successive crushings can also be applied to the crush rolls 14 if desired, as shown in Fig. 8, in which the Web crushed between runs 48, 49, and 50 or the loose stock, if a suction fan, cluster, or the like is interposed, passes between a staggered series of rolls, preferably fluted as usual, of which the bottom rolls I5 rotate in fixed bearings and the upper rolls 16 are pressed forcibly downward either by the use of springs 11 and screw means 18 or by pistons 79 working in hydraulic cylinders 80, the fibers and foreign matter being agitated by compressed air jets issuing from nozzles 8| directed against the web where supported by the under sides of top rolls 16, or by relative axial movement of the rolls as in Figs. 5 and 6. Thereafter, the fibers are freed from the pulverized foreign matter in one or more dusters, or in a ceiling condenser, or even merely in the course of their passage through the succeeding card or cards of the set, depending on the amount of impurities present, the crushing in this instance having been carried to an extremely complete extent.

The machine of Figs. 5 and 6 can be made of greater width so as to receive and crush, simultaneously and side by side, the webs from two or more cards of standard width. Thus, the crushing rolls 48, 49, 50, of 120 inches in length, will receive the webs from two 60-inch card cylinders, these cards and the new machine forminga special pre-carding unit, each card having a cylinder of larger diameter and more workers and strippers than normal, permitting it to be speeded up to give a far larger production than usual while still forming a web suitable for the action of the crushing rolls. The latter run at equivalent speed, so that this pre-carding unit will give suificient production to supply three or four standard sets of cards with cleaned stock, in cheaper and more efiicient manner than by supplying each set of cards with its own crushing machine or machines, and under favorable conditions enabling reduction in the number of cards needed in a set, as from four to three or less carding machines. Alternatively, a single special card of 120" or so width can be used for the same purpose.

A related arrangement providing for doing the crushing of the carded web from a plurality of higher roll 85 of a vertical stack of crushing rolls 86, while the web 81 from a second card 88 at the other side of the stack is fed in the opposite direction between roll 85 and the next succeeding upper roll 89 of the stack. The web 99 from still another card (not shown) located behind card 83 is brought over such card in fiat relation by conveyor aprons 9|, 92, and, fed between top roll 93 of the stack and the roll immediately below it. Additional webs from still other cards can be brought to the stack in analogous manner by the addition of still further rolls to the stack. Upon emerging from the bite of the rolls, the fibers of each web are sucked into the intake slots of full width nozzles 94 of a suction conveyor conduit 95 transporting the fibers with their pulverized foreign matter to a duster or equivalent machine for separation of the dust from the stock, the latter being thereafter processed in any of the ways indicated hereinbefore, serving to supply clean stock to a plurality of sets of cards.

While I have illustrated and described certain forms in which the invention may be embodied, I am aware that many -modifications may be made therein by any person skilled'in the art, without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the claims. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the particular forms shown, or to the details of construction thereof, but

What I do claim is:

1. Crush rolls for pulverizing foreignmatter present in wool and other textile fibers, comprising in combination opposed rolls repeatedly pressing the fibers between them with pressure sufficient to pulverize a substantial portion of the foreign matter present in the fibers, and means producing air-blasts disturbing the lie of the fibers with respect to each other between successive pressings by the rolls.

2. Crush rolls for pulverizing foreign matter present in wool and other textile fibers, comprising in combination opposed rolls crushing the foreign matter as the fibers pass between them, means rotating the. rolls at unequal surface speeds, means imparting axial movement to at least one of the rolls, and means heating at least one of the rolls.

3. In apparatus for removing foreign matter from wool and other textile fibers, in 'combina tion, a plurality of carding machines, means subjecting the web issuing from each carding machine to pressure sufiicient to pulverize a part of the foreign matter present in the fibers, a crush r011 unit, means combining and delivering the thus pressed webs from all the carding machines to the crush roll unit; means pneumatically removing pulverized matter from the fibers after passing through the crush roll unit, a plurality of additional carding machines, and means feeding the fibers thereafter to the latter carding machines.

4. In apparatus for removing foreign matter from wool and other textile fibers, in combination, two rolls in spaced and parallel relation, a third roll bearing against both of the other two rolls, means feeding a web of fibers between the third roll and the other two rolls, means directing blasts of air against the web in the span thereof between the two rolls arrangedin spacedand p nile] relation, and mechanlcel Number means-agitating the fibers of the web in the some 412,531 span. 537,940

MANFRED T. HOFFMAN. 986,538 5 2,055,936 REFERENCES CITED 2,075, 5 The following references are of record in the 2458-775 file of this patent: 2,323,167

UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 Number Name 4 Date Number 307,161 Bailly Oct. 28, 1884 314,809 Dolge Mar; 31. was 160,964 318,730 Harmel Mar. 26, 1885 Name Date .Nouvelet Oct. 8, 1889 Schrebler Apr. 23, 1895 Atwood Mar. 14, 1911 Loomls Sept. 29, 1936 Albero Mar. 30, 1937 Hurst et a] Aug. 8, 1939 Varga. June 29, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain 1882 Great Britain Apr. 7, 1921 

